A mad scientist who obviously doesn’t get out of the lab much, DJ Shadow spends much of his 1996 full-length debut Endtroducing….. rewiring the Mo' Wax sound that he helped invent. This snootiest of dance labels made stars out of train-spotting DJs, hooking up countless samples and special effects into a hypnotic pastiche of trippy beats, and Shadow was its biggest star of all.

The dystopian New Age of Endtroducing….. sounds like an alien spacecraft touching down on the autobahn late at night, probably to check out Earth’s used-vinyl bins. Endtroducing….. is headphone macro­dub with a crafty Californian sense of humor, and the lamentable fact that Shadow has spawned a thousand corny knockoffs doesn’t stop grooves like “Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt” from ringing out like hell’s bells. This is DJ culture at its boldest: steeped in the past, but zooming into the space-age future.

The album has been included on several “best of” lists, including Muzik magazine naming it the top Dance album of all-time and Treble magazine naming the album as the best of 1996.